been an accompaniment of the general evolutionary process. And now, at the culmination of the cosmic process, man stands forth-child of the great WorldMother-a being capable of reflection, investigation and rational volition as a guide to his own activities; a tremendous factor henceforward in the evolutionary process, who by thought, married to deeds, cannot only change his own stature-contrary to scriptural suggestion-but can form his own character, modify his environment, and vastly help or hinder the progress of the world. Nay, he is doing it, whether he will or not-for evil if not for good-wasting the riches which affluent Nature has placed in his hands by unwise prodigality, wasting his own life by heedlessly devoting it to selfish or unworthy ends, or wisely enlarging it and the world's prosperity by a well-considered balance of economy and expenditure of vital resource in the service of his fellows. A creature like man cannot be a mere make-weight in the economy of Nature: he must tell, either one way or the otherfor good or for ill. Nor has man been left without guidance as to the true method of combating the evils of life. The discovery of this method, indeed, is left to his own intelligent volition, but the rule by which his steps should be guided is planted deep in the very nature of things. The fact that cause and effect rule in his own mental activities as well as in the processes of external nature that in all normally constituted minds action necessarily follows from adequate and equivalent motives so far from banishing ethics from the world of human effort, constitutes the sole and essential condition of all moral action and ethical advancement. Nor does it even imply the negation of individual freedom in any rational, philosophical sense, since the motive which controls his action is not external to the man but the outcome of his own inherent nature in contact with the living world; and to say that the motive governs his action is therefore simply to affirm that his action is governed by his own volition, which is the clearest possible statement of his freedom. The conception of uncaused volition, or of action deter mined by a will acting independent of orderly and equiv. alent motive, on the contrary, is an affirmation of real external constraint; for here the will is hypostasized as an entity superior to and external to the other faculties of the mind, and constraining them to do its. bidding. The conception of the uncaused volition of a self-determining will extrinsic to the natural order of causation and equivalent motive, intrudes a supernatural element into human action of the character of true external compulsion. This, however, is a purely metaphysical and unscientific conception. It must be evident, on reflection, that the only real constraint which the moral nature of the individual can suffer, is the constraint of external forces; while the only rational conception of moral freedom consistent with the possibility of ethical culture involves the recognition of an individual volition which is the resultant of adequate and equivalent motives; such motives being the outcome of the free activity of the psychical natre upon the circumstances submitted for its judg ment. Looking back, all along the line of social and moral evolution, we see that progress has been made whenever man has acquired a true understanding of cosmic laws, and has governed his life in accordance therewith. Recalling the anthropological collection at the World's Fair, with which we started, and taking the rudest stone implement to be found there as an example, we shall find that it was fashioned to human uses by the discovery of and conformity, in some small degree, to the laws of mechanics; and it is merely by an amplification of this scientific knowledge and its uses that the powerful Allis engine, in Machinery Hall, and the most intricate apparatus for weaving or printing or fashioning articles for daily use has been constructed. If Nature has compelled man to fight his way up from barbarism to civilization, she has also furnished him with suitable weapons all along the way; until the Krupp guns and steel armor plates of our modern day promise by their very perfection of mechanism to render brute conflicts forever unprofitable as well as immoral. When a single shot costs a thousand dollars for powder and bail, Our nations will think twice before they settle commercial quarrels or disputes about boundaries by appeals to arms. To this era of "peace and good will" the marvelous triumphs of the mechanic arts, in the field of manufactures and in the construction of the vehicles of commercial intercourse are also contributing factors more potent than pulpit sermons or the tracts of the Peace Society. Whenever man has ceased to study Nature and endeavored to hew out a course of conduct for himself with the imperfect tools of his own unguided imaginings, hoping thus to blunder into some millennial condition of prosperity and happiness, he has always gone astray. That is the fault of metaphysical speculation. everywhere, carried to excess, and divorced from experiential knowledge. It involves an immense waste of power, like the effort one makes to lift himself by his boot-straps. That is why India finds herself today a plaything in the hands of England, though intellectually her great thinkers are infinitely superior in culture and ability to the small-minded Occidental theologians who call them "heathens," and assume to dole out to them the conditions of salvation from eternal torment in a future life. Was it a gleam of real intellectual progress, or was it only reflected light from the Parliament of Religions, which induced the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, the other day, to send back Missionary Noyes with his gospel of a possible future probation for the "heathen," in spite of the awful warning and threatened secession of Joseph Cook? Whatever religion we may profess, or if we think we have no religion, we are face to face, every day of our lives, with the actual facts of the Cosmos, and of our associated human life; with the problems of present duty-of salvation here and now. Underneath the facts are the eternal laws in accordance with which they have come into being. It is ours to study the facts, to learn the laws, and to conform our lives in harmony with them. Herein lie both our golden opportunity and our profound and unavoidable respon sibility. To obey is life-ever-enlarging life, reaching out to ever higher and more beneficent fruition. To ignore or disobey is pain, degeneration and death. There is no royal road to that knowledge, either by "Mental Science"-which is nescience-or Theosophy, or any form, whether ancient or modern, of special illumination or supernatural grace. To hold up such hopes or expectations to men in the face of the impressive teaching of all history is to make one's self a blind leader of the blind-to cultivate an egoistic conceit of knowledge, which is no knowledge, and to place new stumbling blocks in the path of human progress instead of those which the travail of many generations has hardly yet, through weary labors and suffering and martyrdom, been able to remove. Nature's mandate forever is, Here are my eternal laws, the conditions of all progress, the source of all true happiness, external to your own volition, which you cannot change by one jot or tittle, but by obedience to which you may transform yourself and the world into the likeness of the All-Perfect. If so you will, your own intelligent volition shall supplement the painful experience of the ages, and hasten the dawn of a higher and diviner civilization. Would you be helpers of the world? Study and obey these laws-be their prophet and evangelist, carrying their glad gospel of salvation by character, salvation by works, salvation by evolution, salvation by obedience, to all who are weary and heavy laden, whether with burdens of sin, or ignorance, or poverty or disease of mind or body. Serve the self which is higher than your individual self-the larger self of family, country and mankind, which is one in the last analysis with the very life and being of the Cosmos. Thus, by forming life and character, self and society, upon the divine order of Nature thou shalt become one with it, accomplishing at once the purest ethical and the loftiest religious ends of life. It is the great virtue of the evolutionary ethic that it calls man from the cloud-land of metaphysical speculation, and seeks to enlighten his intellect and guide his steps by appeals to the scientifically ascertained. facts of human experience, and the laws by which they are governed. Back to Nature-not in her statical aspects, as dreamed by Rousseau and the Eight eenth Century philosophers, but in her dynamical and evolutionary aspects-must we ever go for ethical guidance, encouragement and inspiration. "Man's thought is like Antæus, and must be Touched to the ground of Nature to regain Fresh force, new impulse, else it would remain Dead, in the grip of strong Authority. But once thereon reset, 'tis like a tree, Sap-swollen in Spring-time, bonds may not restrain Dead stones, and walls, and rocks, resistlessly." Calling men to obedience to the eternal laws of right which are a part of the Cosmic Order, not alien to it, the evolutionary ethic demands the most exigent service of all who clearly perceive the nature of its high behests. He who in this service would help to reform the world, has no idle or superficial task before him, nor can he hope for an immediate millennial future which shall establish a universal reign of righteousness in human societies. His philosophy of life, while the reverse of pessimistic, should perhaps rightly be styled melioristic rather than optimistic. Slowly, by the enlightenment and conversion of the individuals who make up the great social organism, must their wills be brought into unison for the accomplishment of beneficent social ends. Private emolument, pride of personal supremacy, and all unworthy seeking of individual advantage, must give place to a complete consecration of will and deed to wise efforts to know, to teach and to obey the great evolutionary laws which ultimate in the highest conduct of life. "Who dares to leave the life of private ends And on himself the world's great burden take, "In the large service of the common weal, Virtues he needs of high and noble name; He should possess such scorn of praise and fame |